To many visitors and locals, aerial ropeways are considered an integral part of Switzerland’s cultural identity. Since the country’s first cable driven system was built in 1866, Switzerland has designed some of the world’s most unique and spectacular cable systems.

Today, despite having just a population of just 8.3 million, more than 1,700 ropeways are currently operational!

Unfortunately, the existence of about 200 of these systems (or 12%) of the nation’s cable cars are now under threat due to a new cable car law that was passed in 2007. These 200 ropeways are small systems that allow tourists to experience the country’s alpine culture and mountains while providing farmers a vital transport link.

The new laws are designed to harmonize regulations across all lift operations (regardless of company size) to ensure greater safety and conformity to EU standards. However many small systems, which only charge a few francs per ride to low volumes of passengers, do not have the financial resources necessary to implement the costly upgrades.

For some small lifts, it is estimated that approximately 1 million francs (US$1 million) are necessary to obtain new permits.

Small ropeway companies argue that the new regulations are too stringent. As such, many are now banding together to lobby the government. Image from Luzernerzeitung.

The federal government contends that they cannot make exceptions until politicians and lawmakers make the necessary changes in parliament.

Luckily, efforts through workshops and lobbyist groups are already underway to ensure that these systems remain an intact for future generations to come. In the meantime, inspectors stress that passengers need not worry about the overall safety of these small ropeways. In fact, statistics demonstrate that Swiss ropeways are the country’s safest mode of transport!

Comments

The cost of 1M CHF are exagerated. To transport goods those ropeways still can be used. They just cannot transport passengers anymore.
Some ropeways haven't had an overhaul for decades. this is the real issue.